


Dipper and Mabel's Totally Unsupervised Road Trip

by FireGriffin



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-02
Updated: 2018-06-02
Packaged: 2019-05-17 11:12:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14831196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireGriffin/pseuds/FireGriffin
Summary: Grunkle Stan never lived in Gravity Falls. Instead, he now lives in the Pines family's basement.Dipper is tired of his family tip-toeing around what happened thirty-five years ago in Gravity Falls, so he talks Mabel into going on a road trip the summer after they graduate high school. He expects it to be a quick visit, but the mysteries around Stanford Pines turn out to be much bigger than either of them ever imagined.Who is Stanford Pines? And what is the huge, triangular device that lies dormant in the basement of his abandoned shack? Only time will tell.





	Dipper and Mabel's Totally Unsupervised Road Trip

The Summer of high school graduation was a wild time for Dipper and Mabel. They fought monsters, saw ghosts, and got Dipper's Toyota so wrecked that they had to rent a car for the drive home. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

It all started in June, the day after they graduated high school. Dipper was stressing about West Coast Tech, while Mabel was stressing about her friends going off traveling without her.

"It's not FAIR," she vented, pacing back and forth across the room. "We're in CALIFORNIA! There's beaches all over the place! Why couldn't they have stayed here? We could've rented an apartment and totally trashed it for a week, been out on the beach like babes every day, pretending to die so the lifeguards would give us CPR... what's so great about Paris! Or Florida! Florida's like California with gross crocodiles! That's a _downgrade_!"

"Mmhm," Dipper said absently, clicking around the new editing software on his laptop. He'd been running a casual youtube channel for a couple months where he investigated the weird, and occasionally even the supernatural, but the basic free program was getting in the way. He'd lost an entire episode just because the program crashed. As much as he sympathized with Mabel's predicament, he was actually looking forward to a summer of no friends, no commitments... just him and his camera.

Mabel stopped pacing and sighed. "So much for my senior trip! I don't have a single friend to go with!" She looked over at Dipper, and put her hands on the back of his chair, leaning forward. "What about you? Were youuu going on a senior trip?"

"Nah," Dipper said, opening up some of his old footage to test the new features out on. "I'm pretty busy, Mabel. There's West Coast Tech, and my youtube channel, and... actually, West Coast Tech, mostly. I know I already submitted my application, but that place is so hard to get into! They only take 200 new students each year, and millions apply! _Millions!_ "

"I knowww, bro bro," Mabel said, spinning Dipper's chair around. "This is so lame. We're both stuck here with nothing to do but think about _college_! Who even wants to think about that? This is, like, the last summer we have of freedom before we have to get a job!"

There was a knock on the door. "Want any dinner?"

"Boo-yah!" Mabel burst out of the room and into the kitchen. Dipper followed at a slightly slower pace.

They'd graduated earlier that day, and their parents had insisted on making something "special" for the occasion. Neither of them were particularly good cooks, but with the combined power of their mediocrity, it looked like they'd created something edible after all. The meal wasn't the surprising part, though. The thing that made both Dipper and Mabel momentarily stop in their tracks was Great Uncle Stan, sitting right there at the dinner table, wearing a nice button-up shirt, and looking like he'd actually taken a shower within the past 24 hours.

Uh, heya kids," he said gruffly, when they gave him surprised stares. "Happy graduation, or whatever."

Dipper and Mabel exchanged a glance, then sat down at the table. "Thanks Grunkle Stan," they said accidentally in unison.

It brought a rare smile to the old man's lips. "Eh, well it's not every day you're released from child prison."

Mabel found herself smiling at the joke, although Dipper didn't find the comparison between school and prison very fitting. The last thing he wanted to do was scare Stan downstairs again, though, so he didn't say anything.

Dipper's mom brought out the last of the silverware, and they sat down to eat.

The conversation was strained by Stan's presence. His lifeless eyes seemed to bore into the very air around them, and his loud breathing meant none of them could ignore the fact that he was sitting there.

"So, tell Grunkle Stan where you're going for college," Dipper's dad prompted.

Dipper rolled his eyes. "I haven't been accepted _yet_. It's West Coast Tech."

Grunkle Stan looked like he'd seen a ghost. Then again, he always did look a bit pale. "Technology, huh?"

Dipper nodded. "Physics, mainly."

"What about you, Mabel?"

Mabel frowned and shrugged. "I applied for the one down the street, so probably there."

Stan didn't say anything for a moment. Then, "S'a good place."

After another long, awkward pause, Stan said, "Y'know, my brother wanted to go to West Coast Tech. Didn't make it, but he got close."

Dipper turned his head sharply, ready to drink in every word. Stan hardly ever mentioned his brother. He'd apparently gone missing more than 30 years ago, and Stan had never been the same since.

But Stan didn't say anything more.

"Did he... like physics?" Dipper ventured.

"Oh yeah, he was obsessed," Stan said. He was smiling, but Dipper noticed his lip was trembling as well. "Never saw him much."

Their parents exchanged an uncertain look. Dipper determinedly ignored them, because if they caught his eye, they would most certainly gesture for him to stop prying.

On the other hand, Mabel looked just as interested as him. "Do you miss him?" she asked earnestly.

Stan's eyes drifted towards his plate. He didn't answer.

Oh, great. Silent again. The subject of Great Uncle Stanford was like an elephant in every room Stan occupied. He never said much about him, but he never  _didn't_ say anything. And you could tell he was always thinking about the guy.

"What happened?" Dipper asked tentatively.

Dipper's mom gently touched his arm, and gave him a look. "Dipper..."

It was _always_ like this. Their parents regulating the questions, telling them to be nice to Grunkle Stan, telling them to give him space... but why? What kind of awful thing was so bad that no one ever talked about it, not even _thirty five years later_??

His parents changed the topic, and conversation picked up. But Dipper's mind stayed firmly on the mystery of his Great Uncle Stanford. Who was he? Where did he go missing? And what had Stan seen to make him so pathetically sad???

~

"It's not FAIR," Dipper fumed later that night, pacing back and forth in Mabel's bedroom.

"Mmhm," Mabel said absently, texting her friends in her big pink bean bag chair. The posters on the wall covered just about every interest under the sun. A couple of unicorns and glitter-covered posters still clung to the walls, peeling away in corners from being taped up there for so long. There were also a handful of posters for death metal bands, with skulls, guns, and other violently goth imagery plastered across them. There were posters of her favorite celebrities, her favorite animals, her favorite knitting diagrams, her favorite TV shows, and even her of some art from museums they'd visited over the years. If Dipper had to describe her room with one word, it would be the word _chaos_.

Right now, he wasn't focusing on the details of her bedroom, though. He was wrapped-up in the enigma that was Grunkle Stan. "He never comes out of his _room_!" he muttered, "and he's so hairy he might as well be a cryptid! Why are mom and dad in on it? Do they actually know what happened?? I can't even... what could they be hiding from us, Mabel? For so long! For _so. Long._ Why?!?"

Mabel shrugged. "Trauma is traumatic. You gotta get over it, dude. Or break into Stan's room and snoop around. One of those two."

Dipper stopped in his tracks. "Snoop around his room?"

Mabel gave him a thumbs-up. "I won't snitch! When you get like this, nothing can stop you except the _truth_. So you gotta go out there and find it!"

"Yeah..." Dipper felt his excitement mounting by the moment. "You're right! Seize the moment! Ask him myself!"

He marched towards the bedroom door. "Thanks, Mabel!"

Mabel ignored him, looking irked as she typed out a text message.

He was going to go down there, and he was going to ask Grunkle Stan if it was the last thing he did!

~

The basement stairs creaked as he walked down them. Strange, because he never heard them creak when Grunkle Stan climbed up them. He really was like a cryptid. He'd basically grown up with this guy lurking down here, but knew almost nothing about him. Why his parents let the guy stay down here for all these years was beyond him.

He flipped on a light switch at the bottom of the staircase, and the corridor at the bottom was illuminated. Three doors.

"Hello?" Dipper called out softly. "Grunkle Stan? I wanted to ask you something."

There was no answer. It was pretty creepy down here. He could probably make a great video out of this for his youtube channel, _Dipper Explores the Unknown_.

After a couple more seconds of waiting for a reply, Dipper peeked into the first door, and staggered backwards. It was a bathroom with a single toilet and tiny shower, and it _stank_. He shut the door quickly, and moved on to the next one.

The next one was a little closet. A dustpan and broom occupied the side of it, and a stack of extra blankets and sheets took up most of the shelves. Except... inbetween two stacks, there was a red thing poking out...

Dipper reached for it gingerly, tugging at the corner. It felt heavy. As he gave it another good tug, the whole thing came out, and Dipper fell backwards, not expecting the sheer weight of it. Sitting on his lap was a thick book bound in red leather, with a golden, six-fingered hand glued to the front. Several of the hand's fingers were peeling away from the book, and Dipper instinctively smoothed them down, but they popped right back up to their curled positions.

_What the hell?_

This thing looked _old_. Dipper opened to the first page, and his heart skipped a beat. _Property of Stanford Pines_. _If found, please return to Paranormal Research Center, Gravity Falls, Oregon._

Dipper heard footsteps at the top of the stairs. "Stan, are you down there?"

 _Mom. Aw, sh**._ Dipper sprung to his feet, shoving the book back between the sheets as quickly and quietly as humanly possible.

"Eh?" came Stan's voice from the next room over. Dipper felt the blood drain out of his face. _Quick, close the closet, close the closet you idiot-!  
_

He swung it shut, and it miraculously didn't make a sound.

"Nevermind!" his mom called from upstairs. "Thought you were outside!"

It took a minute for Dipper to calm down enough to venture into Stan's bedroom. When he did, he realized Stan had been sleeping. Mom's loud voice must've woken him up. He was sitting up, looking bleary-eyed, and fumbling for his glasses. "Who's there?"

"Um, it's me, Dipper," he replied, taking a step further into the bedroom. "I just wondered-"

"Sure you do," Grunkle Stan grunted, sliding his glasses on to his face at last. "C'mere." He patted to a section of the bed, next to where he was sitting.

Dipper made his way over, looking around at the starkly empty room. When he sat down, the bed sagged. "Sorry to come down here, I just wondered... why don't you like to talk about Grunkle Stanford?

"Ford," Stan said immediately. "He liked to be called Ford."

Dipper was taken aback by the forwardness. "Oh... oh really?"

"Mhm. And he had six fingers on each hand. It's about time you knew a thing or two about him. I won't be around forever, after all. Someone's gotta remember him."

Dipper didn't say anything.

"Yep..." Stanley sighed deeply. "Worst brother you could ask for. Didn't talk to me for a long time, after high school. And when he did call me up, he was all the way in Oregon! Crazy bastard. Convinced that supernatural stuff was rea-" his voice caught "-real."

Stan's face scrunched up, like he was trying not to cry. His lip trembled as he fought back tears.

Finally, he looked over at Dipper, and said gently, "Heh. I'm just a sad old man, Dipper. A sad old man. You don't need to know about my stories. All you've gotta know is to never be a jerk like Stanford was. H- his own faul-faul-fault." He took a deep breath, steadying himself.

"Eh, what do I know." He stood up, and Dipper followed suit. He half hoped that Stan would say something more, but he only patted Dipper firmly on the back. "Good luck with West Coast Tech, kid. Make your family proud."

Dipper nodded, not knowing what to say. Stan clearly wanted him to go, but he had so many more questions. When he left the basement, he had even more questions than before. _Paranormal Research Center, Gravity Falls,_ huh? Somehow, he got the feeling he'd be paying that town a visit.

~

"How'd it go?" Mabel asked when Dipper walked back into her bedroom.

"Crazy!" Dipper replied.

"He _talked_?" Mabel exclaimed, looking up from her phone with a gobsmacked expression.

"Not really, but I saw this book in the closet that was probably written by Stan's brother, and it said _paranormal research_ in it, and I think I know where he used to live!"

"Where?! Where?!"

"Gravity Falls, Oregon!"

Mabel typed furiously on her phone, pulling up a google search page for the name. "Huh. There's, like, no info about it at all. Except a motel and a car dealership."

"Lemme see," Dipper said, snatching the phone from her. He opened up the town's address in google maps, and zoomed in. "Huh. It's in the middle of a forest. Really far away, like two days by bus."

Mabel snatched her phone back from him. "Travel time? Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Dipper grinned.

"ROADTRIP!" they hollered at the same time.

Mabel leapt out of her bean bag chair. "Oh my GOSH, Summer is _saved_! All that money I saved, we can buy hotels and food and gas, and you can record _so much_ for your youtube channel, and I can listen to that podcast while we're in the car-"

The twins zipped off to plan their road trip, bubbling with excitement. Though neither of them mentioned it, the biggest thrill wasn't the roadtrip itself. It wasn't the truck stop food, or the driving-down-stretches-of-farmland feeling, or the idea of going there without a single shred of adult supervision. It was the thought of finally getting to the bottom of the man that was Stan's brother. Paranormal researcher, missing person, and author of a mysterious journal. Now _this_ was the kind of thing that was supposed to happen in the Summer.


End file.
